


a fever you can't sweat out

by ggwynbleidd



Category: Metalocalypse (Cartoon)
Genre: Fluff, Gift Fic, M/M, Sickfic, Unresolved Romantic Tension, there's some kind of canon divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:48:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27362992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ggwynbleidd/pseuds/ggwynbleidd
Summary: Weekend plans to pal around are put on hold when Magnus comes down with the flu, but that doesn't deter Toki.
Relationships: Magnus Hammersmith/Toki Wartooth
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	a fever you can't sweat out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HeyMurphy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeyMurphy/gifts).



“Hey man, I can’t hang out this weekend. I’m real sick. Have the flu or somethin’. Sorry. Bye.”

The congestion in Magnus’ head made it sound more like he said _Hab de flu or summin’_ but hopefully, he was still coherent enough. His social obligations done for the week, he set his phone on the coffee table and curled up on the sofa with a blanket and cup of coffee. His taste buds were out of commission but it was hopefully at least hot enough to soothe the ache in his throat and maybe knock some of the shit in his head loose. Besides, it wasn’t that big of a deal that he couldn’t taste it because it was probably stale anyway.

That worked for a bit at least, a temporary reprieve, until the coughing started. At least he was getting whatever was layered in his lungs lose, even if the ache in his chest and throat was annoying and painful. Magnus shuffled to his bathroom, digging in his medicine cabinet to find...absolutely nothing. Of course, he didn’t even have any allergy medicine on hand. Of course. He hadn’t really thought to get any of that sort of thing since he rarely got as sick as he was. Or at least he was usually better at walking it off when he was sick. Jesus, was he getting that old already?

The most he could do was grab an extra roll of toilet paper to sneeze and cough into. And lay on his sofa under his thin blanket half-watching Wheel of Fortune as he drifted in and out of sleep. His whole body was sore at this point and Magnus found himself switching between shivering under the blanket because of chills and flinging it off of him as he overheated. This was probably the flu. Just his luck. At the very least he was able to drift off after a final coughing fit, with the hopes of being able to sleep it off.

“You okays pal?”

Magnus jerked awake with a shriek of surprise, limbs flailing out and body rolling until he was suddenly on the floor, cushioned by beer cans that he had tossed the day before. Somebody was in his apartment, he was sick as a dog, where the fuck was his knife-

“Oh, is okays!” the form above him knelt down to his level, patting his shoulder as Magnus’ sluggish brain pulled itself awake. “Is okays, Magnus! It’s just Toki!”

“Why are you in my fucking apartment?!” barked Magnus as he sat up, any kind of anger undercut by a coughing fit. “Dude, you didn’t knock, nothin’, like-”

“I did! I knocks and knocks and you don’ts answer me...and the doors was unlocked...so I comes in!” Toki said sheepishly. “Let’s gets you out the floors, okay?”

Magnus grunted as Toki grabbed him under his armpits and heaved him up onto the couch again. It didn’t sit well with him that Toki put no effort into basically picking him up. But that was the least of his worries. Toki was just...in his apartment. And now making himself at home as he sat down next to Magnus and pressed a hand against his sweaty forehead.

“You gots a fevers,” Toki stated casually. “You takes any medicine?”

“I don’t have any,” was the grumbled response, Magnus cocooning himself in his blanket in an attempt at some kind of privacy. He coughed again and curled up further, a ball of fleece with an angry face peeking out of it.

Toki clicked his tongue against his teeth in a scold, shaking his head and standing up, hands on his hips. He was obviously observing the situation around him. Another reason to be embarrassed. Not only was Magnus sick, and probably about to knock out again, and Toki had wormed his way into his domicile, but...the garbage. A lot of it. Too much. The signs of someone who just let things fall where they fall and of someone who knew he wouldn’t pick it up in the morning. But Toki seemed undeterred, stepping over and around empty cigarette cartons and beer cans and old pizza boxes, heading to the kitchen.

“You don’t gots foods, eithers!” he called.

“I do too!” Magnus croaked defensively.

“No, this ams just mustard and a handfuls of Burzum sauces! It’s condom-ants!” Toki retorted, peeking his head into the living room. “You left your coffee makers on, too. Wowee, Magnus, you beens really sick to lets this stuff happens, huh?”

“Yeah, man, I’ve been fucked up,” he decided he was going to take that escape. Sure. The amount of trash that had accumulated in his apartment was because of him being sick. If Toki wanted to believe that over him being disgusting that was fine by him. “Man...I dunno what you’re plannin’ on...but I am going back to sleep.”

He barely sank back onto the sofa again when Toki approached with a telltale rattle of cans.

“You gots a bed,” Toki announced. “Up.”

“My TV’s in here, though,” Magnus gestured limply at the game show that was playing. “I like the noise. Helps me sleep.”

Toki just shook his head and reached down. Magnus didn’t even have time to really process what was happening until he felt arms hook around his torso and a sudden feeling of weightlessness that made his gut turn. A yelp of surprise escaped him as Toki simply slung him over his shoulder like he was a sack of flour, the inches Magnus had on him making his feet still drag on the floor.

“Oh, calms down! Is nothing,” Toki chirped as he proceeded to half carry, half drag the protesting Magnus to his room. “Quit wigglings!”

Magnus clawed at Toki’s back in a desperate attempt at getting situated on his shoulder, or free, whichever came first.

“Put me down you goddamn-” Magnus yelped, balling Toki’s shirt in his fists and trying to stop them by digging his feet into the carpet. “Son of a bitch! You absolute fuckin’ lunatic!”

Magnus got a light, playful slap to his thigh and a giggle in response.

“You break into my home, you pick me up like a toddler, you hit me! You just hit me!” the dramatic bawl made Toki giggle again. “Put me down!”

And he was put down. On his bed. The springs of his mattress creaked in protest as he was flopped onto it with a grunt of effort. Magnus wrapped himself tighter in his blanket and glowered up at Toki, who was innocently grinning down at him.

“Takes a nap, I’ll wakes you in a bit,” Toki instructed, leaning down to pat Magnus on a sweaty cheek. “You needs your rest.”

At this point, Magnus couldn’t even fight even if he wanted to. He was exhausted and sore still, and his head was pounding, and his throat hurt, so the best thing he could do was sleep it off. So he dozed. His sleep was only interrupted a few times, distant noise in the living room, the sound of a bag being fanned out, a wracking cough, faint conversation. But it was mostly peaceful. There was that hope when he did wake up for a few seconds that maybe, just maybe, it was all a dream that Toki had come in, invaded his privacy and-

“Magnus.”

Or maybe not. Magnus cracked his good eye open at the noise to see Toki sitting on the other side of his bed. He sat up only to have two more blankets, blankets he didn’t even remember having, falling off of him. The trash on the other half of his bed was gone and on his dresser sat his TV, the trash on that cleaned as well.

Well, damn.

Now he had to be grateful.

“I gots food. And medicines,” Toki gestured at a few bags that sat between the two of them. “I gots takeouts, is really goods. I already ates but you has yours now. Helps you feels better.”

“What you get?” Magnus asked as he sat up further. Toki held out a container, still warm, and Magnus cracked the lid and gave it a sniff. “What is this?”

“Egg drop soup. Helps your throat, y’know?” Toki gestured before tightening the ponytail he had up. Magnus hadn’t even noticed it in his sleepy daze, but Toki had his hair up and was sweaty, and his shirt was streaked with lines of dust. Had he been cleaning this whole time?

“I don’t like eggs,” Magnus announced as he closed the lid. Toki’s face fell.

“Well, I gots you orange juice-” he offered.

“I don’t like orange juice,” he replied.

“Apple juice?” Toki’s shoulders sagged as he talked. “Tea? Ginger candies? Tomato soups? Magnus...you don’t likes soups, or juices, or eggs. You don’t eats meat. You don’t drinks teas. You don’t likes ginger, or spinach...most vegetables reallies...or cilantro-”

“That one’s genetic,” Magnus interjected.

“-What do yous eats?” Toki asked. Then his face reignited with a smile, and he held up a bag. “I gots you Halloweens candies too.”

That, Magnus reached for. And Toki held it out of his grasp.

“Eat the soups first and then you gets candies,” he teased.

With a heavy sigh, Magnus lifted the lid off the container entirely and sipped. It wasn’t so bad, not as bad as he remembered eggs or soup being. It was just...the texture of both of them. Food wasn’t meant to be sipped and eggs were either rubber or mush in his mouth. But it did help his throat and warmed the chills in his body so he sat and sipped and chewed as he listened to Toki list to what else he had gotten. Medicine. Cough medicine, aspirin, cough drops, anything that someone with the flu could need.

“Man,” Magnus said softly, feeling thoroughly cowed at the display. “Thanks. Really.”

Toki paused and then just shrugged like it was nothing. Just the amount of food he got, much less the medicine, had to cost a pretty penny. All name brands, too. This kind of shopping trip would have to be multiple paydays and store brands and heavy calculating for Magnus. Toki had the money for it though. So all Magnus could do was eat the fucking soup and drink the fucking juice Toki got special, just for him. He wasn’t ungrateful; it was just a little too much for him to process.

“Feels better?” Toki asked. Magnus could only nod. “Good! Heres you go, likes I promise.”

A few pieces of candy, bite sized chocolates, fell into Magnus’ palm which were eaten with more enthusiasm than the soup. Toki just exhaled through his nose in a little laugh before standing again.

“Go steams in the baths. Knocks that snots outta your heads. Got you some epplesoms salts too. And yous a lil’ sweaty anyway,” it was almost a tease in how he said it. Magnus sat for a second longer and Toki raised his eyebrows at him. “I gots to carry you again?”

That got Magnus on his feet, Toki laughing at him again. He gave Magnus a playful push down the hall as he passed and handed him the epsom. Magnus walked into the bathroom, clicked on the light and blinked in surprise.

“Fuck,” he exhaled softly.

The bathroom was clean too. Magnus found it worthwhile to actually relax in it for once, watching as steam rolled up into the air and stuck to the mirror, his skin, the walls. It was almost enjoyable...except for the main reason he didn’t lounge around in bathtubs - the fact that his knees were almost up against his throat as he tried to lay down. It was a struggle but it worked up to a point, Magnus trying to enjoy himself and let himself relax in the hot water.

“Gots you some paskjamas!” Toki called as the door just opened.

“Dude!” Magnus yelped as he reached to cover himself. “Can you knock? For real? My dick is out, man, why do you not-”

“Is okays, we both guys,” tittered Toki as he set the folded pajamas on the toilet. He cast a look at Magnus and laughed again. Magnus could almost see the humor in his position, since between his already compromised position and his attempt at preserving any kind of dignity, he probably looked like he was folded in on himself like a collapsing sun. “Is a lil’ cramped?”

“Can you please? Go?” Magnus said but still laughed as he talked. Toki’s constant giggling and twittering like a little bird was contagious. “Thanks, man, but I’m naked. Like…”

“I sees,” Toki was still looking at him. Magnus felt his face grow hotter. Because of the fever and the water. Yeah. “Is fine. Yous…”

“Mes?” Magnus raised his eyebrows.

“Don’t makes funs of me!” Toki said, but still smiled. “I’m gonna lets you soak more. Then you dries off and gets back in bed.”

Magnus nodded and let himself relax when the door shut again. He had had a day planned, before Toki had called him up and made his plans. Drink. Smoke some weed. Dust off some of his VHS tapes. Typical things to do on a weekend off. Until Toki had called him up asking if he had wanted to hang out. It was even something kind of similar, just probably more public and expensive. Go to a bar, see a movie, grab a bite to eat.

But then Magnus had planned to sit and languish and let the fever cook his brain. Let some kind of symptom overtake him and let him slip away for the weekend in a fog of snot and napping. Now this. Whatever this was. But he couldn’t even fault Toki too hard for this. He was appreciative of all of this shit he was pulling.

Toki was frustratingly nice.

Stepping out of the tub and drying off, Magnus looked at the pajamas that had been selected for him. He had last seen the pants years ago - shoved to the back of his closet as he elected to sleep in just boxers or whatever he was wearing when he felt tired. But he had missed them. And Toki had somehow found one of his old comic shirts that he honestly thought he’d left behind when he was kicked out of Dethklok.

Where did he find either of these? A note of anxiety ran through him at the idea of what else Toki had seen by snooping through his shit. Keepsakes, collectibles, odds and ends that weren’t for anyone’s eyes but Magnus’. A man has his secrets and his personal items. The knives Toki could touch (most of them, some were antique) but the other things. The private things. The capital ‘p’ Private things.

The boxes that were sitting in front of his closet when he got back to his room were obviously disturbed. Not the best sign but Magnus found himself distracted by something else. Toki had opted to lose the dusty shirt and was just...sitting on his bed. Shirtless. There were a lot of different situations Magnus’ mind conjured up for him. Magnus ten years ago, flu or no flu, would be crawling up the walls at a guy built like Toki who had been bending over backwards for him all day on his bed without a shirt. But, this was current Magnus. And current Magnus cared about the flu he had and was tired as hell and was too old for any sort of gawking like that.

“You feels better?” asked Toki.

“Yeah, man. Thanks,” Magnus sat back on his bed and sighed when he was presented with a cup of medicine. “I know we were gonna hit up a bar or something, but this isn’t what I thought of when you said you wanted to do shots.

“No, sillies, just medicines!” Toki chuckled and held it out further. It reeked of old cherries. Magnus hated cherry flavoring. “Takes this and I leaves you alones.”

“You planning on heading out?” he asked before taking the medicine. He held his nose to at least dampen the scent and the taste and pulled a face when he threw it back. Toki snickered. “Jesus.”

“Knocks you on your ass, huh?” Toki said before his brain flickered over to something else and he pointed at a few of the boxes. “You saids you gots tapes, rights? You wanna watch a movies still?”

“Uh, sure, I guess…” Magnus stood quickly when Toki made a move to get up to look through them. “Let me, man. I got some...personal shit, in there.”

“Likes?” Toki teased, trying to peer over Magnus’ shoulder as he dug.

“Personal shit,” he repeated.

“Toys?” Toki’s eyes grew wide.

“I might have some action figures in here. Collectible shit from the ‘80s and stuff,” Magnus wasn’t even sure what he had any more, between the countless moves and storage units. “Might have some old Kenner Star Wars toys from when I was a kid.”

“Oh, no, I meant other toys?” the tone in Toki’s voice made it obvious. Magnus paused for a second, sighed and continued his search. “Ooh, does you?”

“Shut up, man,” Magnus snipped, face burning as he sat down on the bed with the right box. “Pick one or two, I guess. This is all I got.”

Toki sifted through them, dusting off paper covers as he did. Magnus’ taste skewed horror, and gore and rare if he could. He loved to brag about getting his hands on things like Guinea Pig back in the day and when asked “The hell is that?” would delight in popping the VHS in the tape player and watching unsuspecting faces contort in disgust and horror. Judging by the grimace on Toki’s face at some of the covers, he wasn’t as big of a fan. It was almost funny, considering the real life gore and horror that seemed to follow the band. Maybe he was tired of it.

“Is that a movies?” he asked, pointing at Magnus’ shirt.

“The Crow? Yeah, man. That might be in here too, lemme dig,” Magnus said. “Well...like, okay. It was a comic first. But they made a movie in the ‘90s. It’s cool. Not, like, the most accurate thing ever but...heh...what comic movies are, y’know?”

“I don’t reads a lots of comics,” Toki shrugged. “I likes manga, though.”

“Oh, Japanese stuff? Some of that’s cool. You know Evangelion? Cowboy Bebop? No? Ghost in the Shell, maybe?” each one he listed off, Toki shook his head. “Oh, Toki. Shame on you. I used to have a lot of bootlegs for that shit, back in the day, but I think they got lost somewhere.”

“We gets new bootlegs for you. Or, ooh, the proper DVDs and stuff!” Toki beamed across the mattress from him and his smile got wider when Magnus produced his old tape of The Crow. “This seems cools.”

Magnus didn’t have the heart to tell him he didn’t have a DVD player. Instead he just stood silently and pushed the tape inside. It flickered and whirred for a second, all static and snow, before a muffled sound began to play out of the TV’s speakers. Magnus sat back onto his bed and crawled under the blankets, listening as Toki opened one of the drinks he had gotten for Magnus.

A little alarm rang out and Magnus’ ears perked up at it. He’d grown to know it from the times that he hung out with Toki. It was time to check his blood sugar. But Toki just snoozed it and set his phone back down on the bed.

“Not gonna check?” asked Magnus as the intro credits rolled. Toki waved his hand. “C’mon, man. Go check your sugar. You’ve done a bunch of shit today and ate and stuff...doesn’t hurt.”

Toki huffed and stood, pausing the movie as he walked out of the room. He always went to the bathroom to check it. Which was fair, at least in public. As far as Magnus knew a lot of people weren’t aware that one of the most famous men on the planet was diabetic. Like it was some deep, dark secret that his pancreas had decided to resign a few years back. But Magnus felt bad that Toki felt the need to hide it from him when it was just the two of them.

Magnus checked his phone for the time. It wasn’t even that late but the sun had started to set. He reached over and turned on the bedside lamp to illuminate his room and waited for Toki, who didn’t even take that long. Magnus had picked up on the fact it didn’t take him too awful long to get everything in order if everything was okay. He watched as Toki turned on the movie again, sat down and opened one of the juices instead of the water he was sipping on.

“Is a little low,” he said. He made a small noise at something that happened in the movie before reaching for the bag of candy. “You wants some?”

“Sure. Thanks,” Magnus unwrapped one of the pieces and eyed Toki. “It that low? Lots of sugar there.”

“Ohh, yous not my dads,” Toki’s smile was undercut by the almost sassy tone he had when he spoke.

“You broke into my house to make me take cough syrup. I can pester you about blood sugar problems, which can kill you, Toki,” Magnus shot back. “I don’t need you going into a goddamn diabetic coma in my apartment.”

Toki chuckled but didn’t say anything else. They sat in silence and watched the movie, the only sounds from either of them were coughs from Magnus or oohs and aahs from Toki. And as the time passed the warmth from the bath, the comfort of his sheets, the feeling of a full stomach and the cough medicine began pulling Magnus’ eyes down further and further.

“You snorings,” Toki said, a hand on his arm.

Magnus jerked his head up. His neck was sore, the movie had progressed far faster than he expected and Toki was looking at him with gentle eyes. Magnus turned red and coughed into his elbow before looking back at the movie.

“You sleepies?” Toki asked softly. “Lays down all the ways, at least.”

“I’m not gonna pass out while I have company over, dude, what the hell,” Magnus grumbled. He cracked his neck and looked at Toki, who had his eyebrows raised quizzically. “What?”

“You just dids!” replied Toki.

Magnus rolled his eyes and looked back at the movie. He blinked, and blinked again, and made his eyes bug in his head for a second as if that would keep him awake. He stretched his arms. Cracked the knuckles of his fretting hand. Wiggled his feet under the covers.

He was going to stay awake out of spite now.

The yawn, loud and obvious, turned Toki’s attention towards him again.

“Goes to beds, Magnus!” he chided. “Stop tryings to stay awakes for me. I’ll be right heres.”

Magnus had already started to listen and settle down into his bed properly when he heard that last part. He turned his head and looked up at Toki with narrowed, suspicious eyes.

“The fuck you talkin’ about?” he asked.

“You needs someone to helps take cares of you,” Toki gestured at the room he had to clean. The medicine he had to buy. The food he had to buy. The implication that the trash was part of the sickness hung in the air as well. “So I’m gonna stays the nights at least, sees how you does in the morning.”

Magnus sniffed indignantly at his new nursemaid and slipped onto his side. And blinked. Just to rest his eyes. His head was still thick and congested, his skin still feverish, his cough barely contained. He was just going to rest his eyes.

The sound of nothing made him open them again. Toki was shuffling around in the dark - the bedside lamp was turned off and the only light was the pinpoint from his Dethphone’s flash. Magnus grunted at the shadowy shape and sat up on his elbows.

“Toki?” he croaked. He reached for the bottle next to his bed that was seemingly unopened and left just for him. Fucking water. He hated water. “What is it, man?

“I’m lookings for extra blankets and pillows, for the sofas,” Toki whispered. “Goes back to sleeps.”

“I don’t have any,” Magnus groaned as he adjusted his stiff body in the bed. “Just...I dunno, man. Just get under a different blanket than me and sleep here.”

It was out of his mouth faster than he even intended. Magnus felt a twinge of something nameless settle in his stomach and he saw Toki look at him in silence, but he couldn’t see his expression behind the light. But the flashlight was switched off and Magnus felt the mattress sink next to him as Toki crawled into bed in nothing but his jeans.

He didn’t get under a different blanket, judging by the rush of cold air that hit Magnus as they were lifted. But Toki soon settled next to him, taking one of the pillows that Magnus offered with a small, mumbled thanks. They lay there in silence for a second and Magnus stared a hole into the dark before sighing.

“Do you mind if I turn on the TV?” Magnus asked softly. “Can’t sleep without noise.”

"i gots a little app on my phones. Plays all kinds of things to help you sleep," toki offered. "whale songs, crickets, waters like rain and stuffs like thats, kitty cats purrings..."

“I...I’d like the tv,” replied Magnus. Toki just shrugged. “Got a preference for which channel?”

Toki shook his head against the pillow he was rested on, so Magnus just turned it on and left it there. Infomercials. The pale electronic light flooded the room and cast ghostly shadows over the two of them. Magnus saw how close Toki was and tried not to pay it any mind.

He turned over on his side and closed his eyes again, only to wake up a few minutes later to a heavy arm slinging over his side.

Jesus Christ.

“Toki,” he said softly. “You’ll get the flu.”

“Gots my shots,” was the sleepy mutter against his back.

“The flu shot gives you the flu,” he grunted in annoyance. But made no attempt at moving the arm from his side.

“No…?” Toki’s voice was small but obviously still intrigued about Magnus’ theory.

“Does too, every time I’ve gotten the flu shot, I got the flu,” replied Magnus sleepily. His eyes were closed again as he drifted in and out of the conversation. “But when I haven’t gotten the shot, I don’t get the flu. Therefore, gives you the flu.”

“Did you gets the vaccines this year?” Toki asked slyly.

Magnus’ sigh was so heavy it made him cough.

Toki just pat him on the back before draping his arm over his side again. He was warm, but in a refreshing kind of way, not like Magnus’ feverishness that was causing him to swelter.

This shouldn’t be happening though.

“Why’re you doin’ this?” Magnus mumbled into his arm as he adjusted where he lay.

“You tooks cares of me,” Toki replied softly.

Magnus paused. His tired, sick brain tried to process when. The camp, maybe? But that had made sense to do. It was the right thing to do. A sense of guilt still ate at him about the man curled next to him.

“Well, you needed help then,” Magnus shrugged.

“And you needs helps now,” was the quiet reply.

Magnus felt a heavy hand move to his hair to the side, peeling away sweaty curls from his hot face and neck. He was already tense and starting to wake up again when he froze absolutely solid at the lips that pressed against the nape of his neck in a kiss.

“Toki-” he said quietly, almost a warning.

“Shoulds I not haves?” Toki asked worriedly. He went to draw away but Magnus found himself reaching for his arm to pull him back.

“I…” he was at a loss for words. Like he had thought earlier, ten years ago Magnus would be jumping on the chance at a guy who was wrapped around him and kissing him and muscular and still fucking shirtless. “I dunno.”

“Sorries,” the apology was genuine. “I won’t do thats again. Just thoughts it would, uh...helps.”

Help?

Magnus inhaled and relaxed his grip on Toki. The arm stayed wrapped around him. Because this was them being buddies, right? Pals? Pals would just sort of lay around and cuddle like this right? Kiss on each other?

Toki suddenly let out a soft sigh and pulled himself closer, burying his face between Magnus’ shoulder blades as he did. His apartment ran cold. That’s why this was happening.

Jesus Christ, surely Toki Wartooth of all fucking people wasn’t doing this? Surely not. The thought was laughable and Magnus knew that it was just him not being able to read body language and tone and expressions, as usual. Toki Wartooth, who could pull any guy or girl he wanted, was not curled up next to a sickly nobody with that sort of intention.

“Night, Toki,” Magnus said as he closed his eyes again.

“Nights, Magnus,” Toki said back.

Magnus woke up the next morning sometime before noon, the sun warming a patch on his bed and making it all too tempting to go back to sleep. Toki was absent and he wondered if he had already left. But as he walked through the apartment and heard the sound of tuneless, off-key humming in the kitchen he realized he had stayed. And was making food.

“You’re gonna make me breakfast, too?” Magnus teased as he sat down at the table.

“If you wants. I was just makings eggs, and I knows you saids you didn’t likes them,” Toki said as he gestured at the pan. Even the kitchen was clean. Usable.

Magnus paused.

Toki had made coffee for two at the very least, which Magnus sipped on happily. Toki even remembered how he took it - the ratio of sugar and cream enough to make the off brand coffee tolerable and a pale beige.

“I can have some, if you have any left,” Magnus said with a shrug.

Toki’s face lit up into a smile. Breakfast was mostly uneventful in how mundane it was, with the exception of Toki having to wheedle Magnus into taking more medicine. But that in and of itself was surprising for Magnus, at least. He couldn’t remember the last time he had had a proper breakfast, early in the morning and with breakfast foods. It had been years of just rolling out of bed whenever he woke up and drinking coffee and then maybe eating a sandwich or chips a few hours later. Not a proper meal. Especially not a proper homemade meal from someone else.

It made him feel odd. A hard to place sort of feeling that settled in the base of his skull and itched at his brain as he watched Toki do the dishes. The light from the window in front of the sink illuminated the few dust particles in the air, glimmering around Toki like little lights, the humming returning as Toki worked. Magnus found himself staring at shoulders that downright rippled as Toki flicked water off plates before setting them to dry, hair that cascaded down his back, the way he just stood and did all this shit for him.

“I can get those,” he said softly. “You cooked, so I do dishes. They’re my dishes anyway.”

“Is okay! You ams sicks right now, anyways. You need your rests!” Toki’s voice was bright and chipper as he talked. THe only thing that drew him from his work was the sound of a lighter. “Magnus-?”

Magnus replied with a barely concealed cough. The draw of nicotine had proved too much for him and he had succumbed to the pack of cigarettes sitting on the table. Considering how he ended up in a new coughing fit and his throat felt like it was on fire, it probably wasn’t a good idea.

“Don’t smokes with a sore throats, Magnus!” Toki scolded him as he plucked the cigarette from between Magnus’ fingers and crushed it into the ashtray. “No wonder ya stays sicks for so longs. Geeze…”

“Yes, Mom,” replied Magnus with a roll of his eyes.

The day passed quickly with Magnus sleeping, groggy from being sick and from getting medicine heaped on him in possibly inappropriate doses. Now and then he would wake up to find Toki doing something else - cleaning more, on the bed on his phone, laying down watching whatever was playing on the television. Each time Magnus would wake up and Toki was next to him, he would look over and stare for a few seconds. And then Toki would feel his eyes on him, look over at him with his little smile and tell him to go back to sleep.

“You sures you gonna be okays by yourself?” Toki asked in the evening, the sun setting again and lingering at the door worriedly. “Remembers to takes some medicines tonight before you goes to sleeps.”

“I’ll remember,” Magnus confirmed with a nod as he tried to politely hustle Toki out of the door.

“And remembers to eats,” he added. “And take those baths. Or just steams in the showers since yous so tall. And gets plenty of rest. And drinks those drinks I gots you, or at least somes waters. And don’t smokes!”

“I will, I will, I will and I won’t, okay?” he sighed as he talked, leaning against the door frame and looking at Toki as he stood at his doorstep. “And Toki? Thanks, man. You didn’t have to do any of this shit, I...I appreciate it.”

He set a hand on Toki’s shoulder. An affectionate pat that made blue eyes twinkle and a smile creep under that ridiculous little mustache.

The hand lingered.

“No problems, pal,” Toki waved his hand as if what he had done had been nothing. Of course, Magnus’ nerves strangled his tongue in his mouth before he could even try to articulate just what all of this meant to him. “You have a goods night!”

“You too. Later, man,” Magnus shot him a lazy peace sign before shutting the door and heaving a sigh.

Goddammit all.

What was any of that?!

His brain was fried. Cooked. Broiled. It was the fever doing this, nothing else, and Magnus decided that was going to be his story. He collapsed onto his bed with a groan and fell asleep within minutes.

Toki didn’t call. He texted, but only sparingly, and after a while even that dwindled down to nothing as the weekend drew near. And Magnus surprisingly was feeling better towards Friday and ready to make up the time they missed out on properly hanging out. There was that worry in his head again and that second feeling that had rested in the back of his skull. Why was Toki not talking with him?

Had he put Toki off somehow? That thing the night he stayed over, maybe the way that was handled was bad? Magnus had decided he was too old to worry about that kind of shit and yet here he was. If he called up Toki and Toki said something about it, he’d apologize. And he supposed they would have to have some kind of fucking talk and he would have to try and salvage one of the few good things in his life before it slipped away from him entirely.

Waiting for Toki was nerve wracking and by the time he picked up, Magnus had chewed one of his fingernails to the quick.

“Hello?” Toki’s voice on the other end was small, hoarse.

“Hey, uh, It’s Magnus. I was just calling and was wondering if you wanted to hang out? I’m about good to go, which, uh thanks again for helping me with that. And I was also wondering if you-” he was babbling, a nervous jumble of words spilling from his mouth. “And I was just...dunno...you’ve not been callin’ a lot and I just wanted to...talk...talk stuff out...if we have to. Are you, like, mad or-”

“Aw, Magnus,” Toki said sympathetically. “Is okays. I can’ts comes out and hangs, though.”

“Wh-why not?” he found himself chewing another finger. “I’m sorry if, like, I did anything, man.”

“Huh? Oh! Is not that,” Toki laughed. And coughed.

“What is it then?” Magnus asked.

“I has the flu.”


End file.
